By Liv Ainsworth, Sexperts
Anatomical sex is comprised of things like genitals, chromosomes, and hormones. Anatomical sex does not exist in a binary of “male/men and female/women,” even though that is what a majority of people are taught.
Intersex describes people who have “a genetic, genital, reproductive, or hormonal configuration that does not easily fit into the binary of male/female.”
Sex assigned at birth is the determination of a person’s sex based on the visual appearance of the genitals a birth.
Gender identity is a person’s deep-seated, internal sense of who they are as a gendered being — specifically, the gender with which they identify themselves.
Gender expression is a person’s outward gender presentation, usually comprised of personal style, clothing, hairstyle, makeup, jewelry, vocal inflection, and body language.
Cisgender is an adjective to describe a person whose gender identity is congruent with the sex there were assigned at birth.
Transgender is an adjective used to describe a person whose gender identity is incongruent with the sex they were assigned at birth.
Non-binary and/or gender non-conforming means that a person’s gender identity and/or expression does not fall into the gender binary of “male/men/masculine” and “female/woman/feminine.”
Two Spirit people have both a male and female spirit within them and are blessed by their Creator to see life through the eyes of both genders.
Two Spirit people held a meaningful place in the sacred hoop. In many tribes Two Spirits were balance keepers. Thought to be the “dusk” between the male morning, and the female evening.
Being a gay native is oftentimes confused with being Two Spirit. While the two may have parallels and intersections, they are not the same. Gay specifically is about attraction to a person of the same sex. Two Spirit is more about the embodiment of two genders residing within one person.
Two Spirit is a role that existed in a Native American/First Nations/Indigenous tribe for gender queer, gender fluid, and gender non-conforming tribal members. If you don’t have a tribe, you can’t claim that role.
Pidgeon Pagonis’ childhood memories include surgeries, hormone therapy, and repeated inspections of their genitals.
When they turned 18 and got a copy of their medical records, they finally understood why.